Thoughts on the QBOA “Work” Feature -- Part 1

QuickBooks Online Accountant has a nice new Practice Management feature called “Work” which I am exploring. For those of you wondering, “Hey, I thought you are already using Aero Workflow, so why would you need this?” here’s why. In this article I will focus on the things I like about the new feature.

Things I Like About “Work”

1. It’s right in QBO, where I am already spending most of my day.

2. I can message my client directly from QBO, and they receive the message in their QBO; I can also have the system send them an email notice that they have a message from me in their QBO. They can respond, and the conversation trail is now located in QBO, instead of in my email folders. Sweet!

3. I can request documents and clients can upload them via Work instead of emailing them. I like the idea of receiving bank statements or other docs this way – it’s more secure.

4. I can mark the Status of each “card” as To Do, In Progress, or Done.

5. I can see due dates for Today, This Week, Next Week and Next 30 Days, and I can sort and filter by client, Team member, or Type (Projects, Tasks, or Requests). I can also see how many unaccepted transactions need to be reviewed, and clicking on the link hops me right to that client’s QBO file.

Conclusion

All in all, it’s a nice, streamlined tool. As noted above, this will not replace my Aero Workflow subscription, where I have documented lengthy procedures for certain tasks and where my time worked syncs over to QBO. “Work” is a complementary tool to Aero and a starting point for practices who have not yet made the leap to a full-blown practice management tool. I recommend giving it a look!

Jody Linick is an AIPB Certified Bookkeeper and a QuickBooks® Certified Pro Advisor. Her company, FitBooks Pro (formerly called Linick Consulting), specializes in remote bookkeeping services using hosted QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online. You can find her series of Blog posts here.